Sunday, June 27, 2010

Dog Tag Book Project

I'm a member of an Online Altered Books group which issues a challenge each month to its members. The theme of this month's challenge is "white". On Monday, the ideas started flowing and mostly because of an image a friend of mine posted on her facebook profile of her son which her husband drew.

My challenge is a two page spread which I've already painted white. On one page I'm wanting to have a black and white image (preferably a drawing) of a helmet on a rifle with boots on the ground nearby. On the other page, I plan to create a pocket which will have a hand-made book in it. The original plan, for the book, changed slightly as I've made it in the shape of dog tags using a chain similar to what (at least I think) soldiers have their dog tags on. The title of this book (which I'm hoping will end up outgrowing this project) will be "Honor the Fallen". I'm wanting to include images of those who have paid the ultimate price in this book. I'm also wanting to include some info about them such as name, rank, military branch, birth year-date of death, place of death, and any additional info those who contribute wish to share. I am also planning to include in this book an image of the US flag along with an explanation for what each color represents. Throughout the spread, I'm hoping to have the various places where the fallen have been KIA (ex: Baghdad, Iraq). I want this to be a tribute to them and their families.

Would you be interested in contributing? If so, please email me at theamericanwars@theamericanwars.org. Feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested in contributing to this project. I would actually like this dog tag book to outgrow the project and if it does, I'll create a new one for the project which would have quotes or something.

Thank you.

PS: One more thing, this is for any of our fallen heroes regardless of which war he/she fought in, this is about honoring the fallen.